ANANTAPUR: Actor Nandamuri Taraka Rathna suffered a massive heart attack and fell down while in Nara Lokesh’s padayatra in Kuppam on Friday.
He was coming out of a local mosque along with Lokesh and a huge crowd. The party cadres immediately shifted him to the KC hospital from where he was rushed to PES Medical College.
The actor-turned-leader was found to have multiple blockages that led to the massive heart attack. Doctors performed a CPR as his pulse rate went down. Later, they conducted an angiogram and a stent was fixed for proper blood circulation.
With no chance to shift him via air ambulance from Kuppam, his uncle Nandamuri Balakrishna sought the Karnataka government’s help to shift the patient to the Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru through green channel.
Taraka Rathna, who had visited Paritala Ghat a couple of days ago to offer tributes to slain Paritala Ravindra at Venkatapuram in Ramagiri mandal of Satya Sai district, reached Hindupur on Thursday. He was with his uncle Balakrishna, who was on an official visit to the Hindupur Assembly segment.
On Friday morning, Taraka Rathna along with Balakrishna travelled to Kuppam for participation in Nara Lokesh’s Yuva Galam padayatra. Taraka Rathna was with Lokesh to offer puja at the Varadaraja Swamy temple and they later offered prayers at a local mosque in Kuppam town. While coming out of the mosque, Taraka Rathna collapsed and went into an unconscious state.
One of the doctors, Manju, said the actor’s pulse rate improved after the CPR was done at the emergency ward.
Jr. NTR along with several family members of Nandamuri family called up Balakrishna to enquire about the condition of Taraka Rathna. TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu also spoke to Balakrishna and doctors. TD senior leader Gorantla Buchaiah Chowdary, who was with Balakrishna, said later that the actor was out of danger. “But we are shifting him to Bengaluru for better medical care,” he said.
